I can't get my head around it

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hi,
i am 14 years old and since i love history make a nice atmosheric historical game (with a nice story,open World type)
i know thats a Project a Professional would do,maybe a whole team of professionals,i dont know if i can do it alone.
For months i am trying to learn blender,UE 4,gimp etc.
I know to write in C and i after i will be done with it start learning C++
The problem is that even if i help in a Project as a part of a team(which i would like to program)UE 4 has blueprints,plus for coding you’ll need visual studio
which i dont intend to pay every month.From the other hand i feel ‘blueprinting’ takes all the fun in game development (even if it is easier)
I also feel like i am in a dead end.The problem with me is that i want to make a game with fascinating graphics,but in blender i cant make a decent building and i dont even know how to make a Human yet
Well,even though i would mostly like to program,doing only that (in a team perhaps)i feel the game is not ‘mine’
Yes i hate doing 3D Modeling but in a game it looks fantastic is fantastic.
About,unreal engine,it has so many abilities that i cant get my head around it,texturing takes time,i need to learn better blueprint,i have some problems importing from blender without its texture
In blender i dont know how artist can do such things,i only know how to use some modifiers and i can build something but the models look like a 2000’s game
I’ve been mporting normal maps etc. from insanebump(a plugin of gimp) but i can barely make a realistic texture in UE 4
I know it needs time but i have so many things i want to do right now except programming,texturing etc. that i dont know if i am going to give up
Some people tell me that this is great projects that only teams with multiple professionals manage,and of course it takes some years
I just like making video games,before UE 4 i used to use unity but i didnt knew much about C#
I would’n like to have a career in game development its just a hobby,but i have many hobbies
That makes me (now that it is a school break for me) sometimes to try to learn something sitting on the computer most of the day and after a long day of wasting a lot of time of doing that i am so tired that i dont want to start anymore.In the other morning i believe i have some chances so i try again and again and again.I have no idea what to do.Some say to me to start by doing something small.I dont know if i even can do that.In the meanwhile i have many other hobbies like language learning,physics,mathematics etc. and all of this independently.
My life is a bit of a mess :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :):mad::):slight_smile:

Thanks in advance for reading all of this.

2

Hey, we ALL felt like this at that age. So many exciting things to do, so little time! (And if you are an adult with a family, it only gets worse! :slight_smile: )

First, Visual Studio Unreal Engine uses is free, so that’s sorted. :cool:

Secondly, you are trying to become a programmer, animator, modeller, writer, artist and designer, at the same time! That’s enough to give anyone brain-ache, so don’t feel hard on yourself. Take short-cuts. That is what they are there for. Blueprints are great for prototyping, as they allow you to build something quickly, and redo it again and again, until you are happy with it. Once that is done, you can rewrite it in c++ to improve performance. Mixamo’s Fuse, Autodesk’s Character Generator or MakeHuman’s MakeHuman are great ways to generate characters, which you can always replace later. These things are there to help you build something in the first place, and you can polish them as much as you like later. Triple-A graphics are the least important thing you need to think about when you are first building a level. Don’t get hung up on this when you are just experimenting.

One piece of advice I always give people, is to break things up into smaller pieces. So you want to make an open-world?

First, learn how to make a character, and get them running around a level. (Or first person movement, if that is what you want).
Second, learn to build landscapes or buildings. (As an advanced subject, learn to generate them procedurally).
Third, learn level streaming, so the level is bigger than can be held in the computer’s memory at one time.

If you learn this, you suddenly have the basis for an open world level. Yay! (Although this isn’t to trivialise the amount of learning this will take).

Make no mistake, some of this stuff is hard, but keep watching YouTube tutorials, especially Unreal’s official ones. See what can be done in the engine, and how to approach things. Seriously, watch their YouTube videos.

Look on the bright side, you’re 14, with a brain like a sponge, and you seem to suit this kind of thing, with interests in mathematics and sciency stuff. You couldn’t ask for a better start. :slight_smile:

Good luck!

3

The worst thing you could do is give up, I believe that game-development is one the most self-motivated areas of work there is due to all of the general skills required. I highly suggest that you continue to study mathematics, as that is an important aspect in game development and computer programming in general. I completely understand the frustration you have, I just turned 16, and was doing the same thing you are right now when I was your age.

My advice to you is to take it easy on learning everything at once, maybe just make some simple graphics for now. You should play around with blueprints more (blueprints can do a lot) , and just try and make a few things, maybe start out with something small, and as you become more confident, work on something more advanced. If you continue with game development at this age, you have a real chance at having a very successful future, because like Jezcentral mentioned above, you couldn’t ask for a better start.

Oh, and one tip: Break your sentences up into paragraphs.

4

All you need is focus. At 14, that can be a difficult thing (if I remember correctly… my memory isn’t what it used to be :slight_smile:

As Jezcentral suggested, break things up into

smaller

pieces.

Game development is probably the most multi-disciplinary field of work out there, so it’s very easy to get into a state of cognitive overload and/or sheer panic from time to time. I’d say the key skill you should develop at this point is The Power Of Tunnel Vision… i.e. the ability to focus all your attention on one tiny aspect of an idea or skill, while ignoring everything else that is peripheral to that, for some extended period of time.

switch to another tiny thing.

Repeat.

After a few years of that, you’ll be more comfortable and confident about it.

5

Firstly,thank you so much for your help
Secondly,Jezcentral you mean i can combine C++ and blueprints?
Is there an easy freewar softwar for easy 3D Modeling?

i was a bit frustated when i was writting :):slight_smile:
Also do you know how to make a nice interface or clothes?
i watched some UE videos on youtube they were very helpful :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

thanks again for your help :slight_smile:

6

I have a question for you.

Do you have a strong passion for this project?

7

I do have passion for this but not as a life career but as a hobby

8

My pleasure. :slight_smile:

That’s exactly what I mean. :slight_smile:

Blender, MakeHuman, Mixamo Fuse are all free.:cool: MakeHuman isn’t on Steam yet, but the other two are.

Daz3D is also free to use, but there are licensing costs if you sell a commercial game with it.

9

Interface -> take a look at UMG https://docs.unrealengine/latest/INT/Engine/UMG/
Cloth -> depends on what exaclty you need. In a 3d program you can create the cloth mesh, but when you want realistic cloth movement, you will have to use a tool called nivida apex :slight_smile:

10

Oh I’ve been there before man. I’m only 18 as of writing this!
Just keep going, and don’t give up.

Now for some software recommendation!
For 3d modeling I suggest these programs:
Wings3d (It’s the easiest one out there! And it’s free!)
Blender (It’s good once you get the hang of it!)
Krita (A really easy to use photoshop… And it’s free!)

And take a look in the content creation area of the forum. And look under the free software.

Also, Visual studio has a free version… Just sayin. And, a good game does not require amazing art. Good gameplay first! So don’t go too crazy of art.
UE4 uses C++… So if this is the program you want, you should get working on that.

Hope that helps! (jamendxman is right. You need to break up paragraphs. Also, work on your spelling a little. you are on your way! :))

(And if you get sick of UE4… I can recommend some great free easier to use engines!)

11

As other people have posted here, do small sections at a time.

I also suggest you try and think of some small achievable projects to break it down for you.

Similar to you, I got a idea for a game that I want to make. There are heaps and heaps of skills though I need to learn though. For the last 4 months I’ve dabbled in a bit of everything, completing a number of UE4 tutorials, watching the twitch streams etc, trying to find something to focus on.

I eventually discovered some nice 2D assets and I’m using them to create a little 2D platformer. Just so you know, my game idea is no way shape or form a platformer. However by having a fairly complete set of assets that I can use to make a fairly nice little project it allows me to focus of gameplay, and so I can just learn the engine without worrying about art assets yet.

In terms of getting your creativity juices flowing for your game idea, I suggest you do a lot of reading - historical fiction/non-fiction, documentaries etc. It will give you ideas for heaps of things: game ideas, environments, story lines, props, characters. I’ve got a notebook which I log of lot of random ideas that come into my head. So though I’m currently working on other projects, I still have my eye on my ultimate project.

Best of luck with it. These things take time.

12

Thank you all for your suggestions.I’ll try my best :slight_smile: